IS COAL DONE?

Coal's burnout: Have investors moved on to cleaner energy sources?
Steven Mufson, January 1, 2011 (Washington Post)

"The headline news for the coal industry in 2010 was what didn't happen: Construction did not begin on a single new coal-fired power plant in the United States for the second straight year…in a nation where a fleet of coal-fired plants generates nearly half the electricity used…[A] combination of low natural gas prices, shale gas discoveries, the economic slowdown and litigation by environmental groups has stopped - at least for now - groundbreaking on new ones…

"From 2000 to 2008, construction started on 20 units in 19 plants, according to Edison Electric Institute. Last year, utilities and power-generating companies dropped plans to build 38 coal plants while announcing that they would retire 48 aging, inefficient ones, according to the environmental group Sierra Club…Although 2010 saw the collapse of climate legislation in the Senate, the Sierra Club is trumpeting such statistics as a sign that "coal is a fuel of the past." …The battle over coal plants could sharpen in 2011, as the Environmental Protection Agency deploys regulations to improve the efficiency - and lower the greenhouse gas emissions - of big power plants."

click thru to the Sierra Club Beyond Coal website for complete info

"Starting Sunday, the EPA will require builders of plants big enough to emit 75,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year to use the "best available control technology" in order to obtain air permits, needed before construction. Utilities, oil refiners and other industries argue that this will add prohibitive costs, and many Republican lawmakers have vowed to handcuff the EPA…In the wake of the midterm elections, President Obama identified promotion of natural gas use as an area of potential bipartisan action. He hopes to prod utilities and manufacturers into switching from coal to natural gas, which emits half the amount of greenhouse gases. The choice looms large given that the average age of the U.S. coal fleet is 43 years, with more than half the plants built before 1967.

"Word of coal's death might be premature, says Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association…[S]everal coal-fired plants begun earlier are still under construction…Other companies have scrambled to get permits before the EPA regulations take effect, and projects in Texas, Kansas and Illinois have succeeded. A project in Mississippi is poised to break ground, though the Sierra Club is still fighting in court to revoke the plant's permits…[and] the federal Energy Information Administration expects that the nation will need to build 30 to 40 new plants to supply the 21 gigawatts of new electricity demand expected by 2035…"

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"Even if coal is not dead, developments of the past two years have dimmed its future…Coal consumption in the electric power sector during the first nine months of 2010 was up from 2009, but still down 5.7 percent from 2008's near-record levels…If American Electric Power], the nation's largest generator of electricity…does need new generation capacity, it will turn to natural gas. In 2010, the wellhead price of natural gas has averaged $4.25 a thousand cubic feet, about 40 percent below the average price from 2005 to 2009 and well under half the peak price…Discoveries of new ways to tap natural gas trapped in shale rock have unlocked supplies that could keep prices in check for years to come…

"Even though Congress failed to enact climate legislation, more than half the states have adopted measures requiring utilities to use more renewable energy. To meet those targets, most investment will probably go into solar, wind, nuclear and energy efficiency projects. Environmental groups are gearing up to challenge coal plants state by state. The Sierra Club is expanding its ranks this year so that 100 full-time staffers will be working on the issue, and the Environmental Defense Fund is hiring additional lawyers to wage battle against coal…[M]any of the oldest plants also run afoul of clean air guidelines on traditional pollutants…The Obama administration might also target coal-fired power plants as a way to meet its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even if legislation remains beyond its grasp…"